The Very Best of NYC Film and Television

As the summer winds down, Film Forum continues to feature flicks that keep the season sizzling. A new 35mm restoration of Howard Hawks’ Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell, runs at Film Forum through Aug 12. The film follows two singers, best friends Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw, as they travel to Paris. Hijinks ensue as they are pursued by a private detective hired by Lorelei's fiancé's disapproving father to keep an eye on her, as well as a rich, enamoured old man and many other doting admirers. Monroe performs the iconic “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” for the first time.

If you love Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, don’t miss Astaire & Rogers: The Complete Works, featuring all ten of their classic musicals running Tuesdays at Film Forum from Aug 17 through Sep 14. The ten films will be shown as double features over five weeks, including Swing Time, Shall We Dance, The Gay Divorcee and Top Hat.

Film Forum also presents Classic 3-D Festival, running Aug 13–26 including stereoscopic films from Hollywood’s first 3-D Golden Age (1953–54). Featured are House of Wax, Kiss Me Kate, Gorilla At Large and Dial M For Murder. The 15 films in this series will be screened as they were originally, using Polaroid filters and lenses and double-system projection: two big reels running simultaneously, one for the left eye and one for the right.

Julia Roberts stars as Liz Gilbert in Eat, Pray, Love opening in theaters across the city Aug 13. Gilbert is a modern woman on a quest to rediscover and reconnect with her true inner self through traveling the world.

At a crossroads after a divorce, Gilbert takes a year-long sabbatical from her job and steps uncharacteristically out of her comfort zone, risking everything to change her life. In her wondrous and exotic travels, she experiences the simple pleasure of nourishment by eating in Italy; the power of prayer in India, and, finally and unexpectedly, the inner peace and balance of love in Bali.

Summertime also means plenty of free film events throughout the City. Grab a blanket and a picnic basket to watch some of your favorite flicks under the stars at the Central Park Conservancy Film Festival Aug 24–28. This year’s festival showcases films with New York City's iconic skyline, buildings and neighborhoods as their center stage, as well as New York's most famous locations and sights from the Empire State Building in King Kong to the City's most notorious subway in The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. The festival will be held for the first time in the landscape north of Sheep Meadow, behind Mineral Springs (mid-Park at 69th Street).

The Coney Island Film Society presents Sci-Fi Summer, screening every Saturday through Sep 18 at the Coney Island Museum. This year’s event includes The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, The Illustrated Man, Brazil, The Lost World, Tron and District 9.

This year, on the newly opened Pier 1, Brooklyn Bridge Park presents its 11th Anniversary season of Movies With A View, one of the city's premiere outdoor film series with an eclectic line-up of films and breathtaking views of the NYC waterfront. This year’s features include Dreamgirls, The Blues Brothers and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Laura Linney stars as Cathy Jamison in the new Showtime dark comedy series The Big C premiering Aug 16. When stifled Minneapolis schoolteacher Cathy Jamison discovers that she has terminal Stage Four melanoma, she decides her “C” will stand for carpe diem. She vows at that moment that it’s high time to make some drastic, dramatic adjustments to the way she is living her life. Look out, world—the new and improved Cathy is finally awake and taking life by the xxxx.